| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: this, not because such obedience would be safe, or honourable, were
it ever rendered to the unworthy; but because it ought to be
impossible for every noble youth--it IS impossible for every one
rightly trained--to love any one whose gentle counsel he cannot
trust, or whose prayerful command he can hesitate to obey.
I do not insist by any farther argument on this, for I think it
should commend itself at once to your knowledge of what has been and
to your feeling of what should be. You cannot think that the
buckling on of the knight's armour by his lady's hand was a mere
caprice of romantic fashion. It is the type of an eternal truth--
that the soul's armour is never well set to the heart unless a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: laid my ungloved hand upon it, but did not look at the rider.
Carriage and horseman passed on, and William resumed his pace. A
vague idea took possession of me that I had seen the horseman
before on my various drives. I had a vision of a man galloping on
a black horse out of the fog, and into it again. I was very sure,
however, that I had never seen him on so pleasant a day as this!
William did not bring his horses to time; it was after six when I
went into Aunt Eliza's parlor, and found her impatient for her tea
and toast. She was crosser than the occasion warranted; but I
understood it when she gave me the outlines of a letter she desired
me to write to her lawyer in New York. Something had turned up, he
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: the boats were stern to stern, theirs all bright now, and, with a
shining sail to our eyes, we turned all black to their vision,
and drew away from them under a sable wing. That extraordinary
uproar died away almost as suddenly as it had begun; first one
had enough of it and sat down, then another, then three or four
together; and when all had left off with mutters and growling
half-laughs the sound of hearty chuckling became audible,
persistent, unnoticed. The cowled grandfather was very much
entertained somewhere within his hood.
He had not joined in the shouting of jokes, neither had he moved
the least bit. He had remained quietly in his place against the
A Personal Record |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: a bit mind sleeping in the cool grass in summer, and when winter
came on sheltering myself by the warm close-thatched rick, or under
the penthouse of a great barn, provided I had love in my heart.
The external things of life seem to me now of no importance at all.
You can see to what intensity of individualism I have arrived - or
am arriving rather, for the journey is long, and 'where I walk
there are thorns.'
Of course I know that to ask alms on the highway is not to be my
lot, and that if ever I lie in the cool grass at night-time it will
be to write sonnets to the moon. When I go out of prison, R- will
be waiting for me on the other side of the big iron-studded gate,
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